


The lifeless land.

by AsymptoticWay



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied One-Sided Crush, Megalo conlang, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on deviantART, POV Original Female Character, Pokemon Battle, Pokemon Fanfiction, Science Fiction, this is my first AO3 post and I have no idea how tags work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsymptoticWay/pseuds/AsymptoticWay
Summary: Codey Augustine is meant to start off as a canon USUM avatar, perhaps a bit older than 11, but she's a Pokémon Trainer of mediocre talent who ends up dropping the island challenge upon meeting with the Ultra Recon Squad. Her interest in Dulse causes her to fall in love with everything related to his culture, so she gives up on being a Trainer and devotes herself to helping the URS in their Alolan research and learning their language. She's no hero and cowardly but gladly lets other people (captains and kahunas, the Aether Foundation, the International Police, the URS itself etc.) cooperate to save the world in her stead."The lifeless land" is set four years later and deals with Codey's long awaited reunion with Dulse in Ultra Megalopolis. She has become the first non-native Megalo speaker ever and is officially going to spend some months in the Megalopolis for study purposes, but Dulse gives her quite the unexpected welcome.





	1. Chapter 1

He drove fast and said nothing. She sat next to him, struggling to look at ease, as her eyes kept catching fugacious glimpses of the city lights. Travelling at such a high speed, while growing more and more annoyed at her own nervous temperament, she had no clear perception of what surrounded her: highways, suspension bridges and wide sidewalks flashed and were gone before she had a chance to notice, and she could barely manage to discern the sheer silhouettes of the sharp-edged, crystalline towers that seemed to frame the city to the very horizon. However, up above the slender buildings, she knew that the sky they had been scraping for centuries was profoundly black. _Des exsto Megalopolis._

He spoke at last:

-So, you are a fresh undergraduate now.

- _Da._

-With a degree in Megalo language.

-Mine is a Linguistics degree…

-But you taught yourself Megalo language and wrote your dissertation about it.

- _Worse rexsto?_

- _Ne._ I did not say it was bad. Did I say it was bad?

-You’re making it sound like it’s bad for some reason.

-Codey,- he took his eyes off the road for a split second to look at her, -Zossie and I were… flattered at the news. You proved yourself nearly as talented in language learning as one of us, you are the first non-native Megalo speaker ever and the only one so far. It’s truly fascinating. Yet, after your application was submitted and reviewed, officers at the _Urad Wremdoj Suxtraj_ notified us and I couldn’t restrain myself from thinking that your _curriculum vitae_ appeared somehow pretentious in a way.

-Pretentious,- she repeated after him, -My CV was pretentious.

-I recall your knowledge of “Megalo language and culture” being referred to as “flawless and complete”. I would regard such a statement as pretentious, yes.

-I didn’t even write that myself!

-Tell me though, what do you know about the history of Megalo people? Do you know anything at all? Perhaps you might have heard of the fall of the Blinding One, _Dalxindan Pewt…_

-Stop making fun of me, Dulse.

-It is not your fault. No one bothered to provide you with the right source of information, which is deplorable. You may speak our language, but the only thing that’s “flawless and complete” about your understanding of Megalo culture is this utter ignorance of yours.

Codey flinched a little, biting down on her lower lip, as if actual physical pain had been inflicted on her. Dulse was a collected young man of a detached disposition, but his cold manners were likely to turn bitterly harsh if need be. She knew he was not trying to be mean, he just calmly spoke the truth, expecting her to acknowledge it. After all, four years had passed – she was not a teenager anymore.

-You… You are right.

-Please, do not be offended. I didn’t take a day off to shame you into giving up your career or I don’t know what else you might be thinking. Nevertheless, I will warn you now: there is something out there, something that I must show you. It is mandatory for you to see it – you cannot start learning history and culture of Megalo people unless you let me show you this. First things first.

She had been staring at him as he talked and couldn’t force herself to look away. He was, if possible, even more attractive than she dared to recall. His messy purple hair and diaphanous complexion gave him a strangely alluring ghostlike appearance.

-Codey, please. You are supposed to be listening to me.

- _Da._

-Were you listening to me?

- _Da, deklausis._

- _Zdrowo. Welxe pro xin derexsto_ , because I’m not going to repeat myself.

She kept sticking her front teeth in her bottom lip.

-Dulse...

-Yes?

- _Najdroge xin kixtas_.

- _Geske,_ please again. You must not thank me. I did nothing so far.

 

The scenery began to change as they travelled further and further from the city center, heading straight into darkness. Fewer and smaller glass buildings were left to gradually disappear, as if someone had dropped a bottle on the floor, Codey thought, scattering sharp splinters all around. After the towers were gone, solid two-story brick and concrete houses took their place, with a geometric maze of ill-lit and deserted streets unfolding itself in between the blocks. The new cityscape gave off a dim, dreary feeling.

-This road has no end. How far do we have to go?

Dulse curled his lips in a pale sneer:

-As far as we possibly can. Do not be restless.

 

Later, massive dome-shaped white structures started to come into sight. They were greenhouses – he explained – and they provided the inhabitants of the Megalopolis with all the food they needed, since no other suitable site for plant life to grow healthy could be found on _Megalozem_ with its perpetual darkness. The greenhouses shone so bright that Codey compared them to gigantic light bulbs laying on the ground. Her clumsy attempt to release some tension resulted unsuccessful as he retained his usual face:

-Uhm, yes. Zossie used to indulge in this sort of silly remark as well, when she was a little girl.

She remembered, but she deemed useless to keep the conversation going.

 

Factories came next – enormous dull buildings that produced no smoke and apparently needed little to no light – just to be replaced at last by the hollow emptiness of a barren, disconsolate wasteland. The street lamps soon became the only light source left to shine. Nothing would have prevented the surrounding environment to turn as unspeakably dark as the inside of a black hole if the brilliance of the Megalopolis had not been so grand it effectively acted like the richest and most resplendent beacon ever to be built. Its light filled the air with the faint glimmer and warm tones of a late sunset.

Codey let her eyes go astray above the exposed landscape, which was tawny and reddish in color.

-Dulse…

-Yes?

-Does this place have a name?

- _Zem oxne lexwen,_ the lifeless land. We still have quite a long way to go.

-How can such a place be of any interest?

-You will see when we get there.

-Where?

-You will see.

-Can’t you just tell me about it?

-No. This is something you need to see – not something you need to hear. Now stop asking silly questions.

-All right then! Four years ago, before you left the Alola region, you promised you were going to come back and do your own island challenge, but you didn’t.

He hesitated for a second or two before replying:

-Although this one specific sentence isn’t silly, nor it is a question, it’s still largely irrelevant to what I was speaking of.

-It doesn’t have to be all about you, Dulse. You know what? I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve been waiting for both Zossie and you to come back. I’ve been expecting you both to try and contact us somehow. I thought you… I thought you both were going to miss your Alolan friends, not to mention the Alola region itself. But you didn’t show up. You never did.

-I demand you quit this nonsense already. Both Zossie and I have a job in the military. As soon as we were back from Alola we were assigned to a new mission. We spend the following nine months on a planet where the surface temperature ranged as high as 65 degrees Celsius at noon to as low as -40 degrees Celsius during the night – in the same spot. And we had to fight Ultra Beasts there, regardless of the position of their star – a blue-white supergiant which was 21 times bigger than your dwarfish sun and approximately 120,000 times brighter. Can you picture that in your mind? I guess you cannot, because you were sitting in the library at that time, wearing a crop top and shorts, sipping lemonade and doing your peaceful research.

-I… I didn’t…

-You did not know, I suppose. You are utterly ignorant and selfish as well.

-Don’t call me that!- she suddenly got angry and raised her voice, -Don’t call me things that I’m not, Dulse. I have been there the whole time. I watched you and your partner as you fell in love with everything Alolan. You enjoyed the food, and the music, and the people, and the Pokémon, you didn’t mind me fetching malasadas, putting flowers in your hair, I watched your eyes get teary every damn time you saw the ocean.

-That was because of that pesky sunlight of yours.

-Well, you literally cried your eyeballs out while stargazing at the Hokulani observatory. There was no sunlight then.

-Hear me out, Codey…

-No. Let me finish first. You were looking forward to come back and do your island challenge. You wanted that to happen, you wanted to come, you wanted to build your full Pokémon team like human Trainers do and truly experience life in Alola. I just… I have been hoping you could finally succeed in granting your own wish.

Dulse gave her such a little smile it was barely noticeable. Once again, Codey couldn’t take her eyes off him – his straight nose, sharp jawline and slender neck and everything – it was all so white it looked blue.

-Thank you for your words. Yet, you speak like one who doesn’t have a clue what it means to be a member of the Ultra Recon Squad. You can’t just come and go to grant your own wishes as you fancy.

-I’m aware of that.

-It didn’t quite look so. Anyway, I suggest you stop busying yourself with your struggle to negate every single statement of mine and start paying attention to the outside instead.


	2. Chapter 2

Codey assumed the journey was over when the soft light from the Megalopolis began to outline what seemed to be an endless, far-off, shiny horizon of steel – a wall, perhaps, uncoiling before them in the middle of the desert and flawlessly perpendicular to the highway. As the travelers kept going, many warning signs started to appear on both sides of the road, all facing the same way. Soon, they became countless.

Such a view didn’t help with Codey’s nervous state of mind. She attempted to seek relief through unimportant details that distracted her – a fortunate technique she knew she could rely upon.

-You don’t have enough colors to differentiate warning signs from regular road signs, do you? They all look the same. They don’t stand out at all! We usually paint them yellow on Earth. Do you remember, Dulse? You and your partner called that a light pink.

-Yes.

-You described Pikachu as pink, too, and Zossie couldn’t stop getting overexcited every time she saw the “green skies of Alola”. Do you remember?

-I do.

-When you decided it would have been good to get your eyes checked by a human ophthalmologist, you were both diagnosed with a condition they dubbed “rich tritanopia”.

-Indeed.

-This means you are dichromats with blue-yellow color blindness. However, your long- and medium-wavelength cones are also extremely specialized in perceiving those light frequencies you do see – not to mention your prodigious sensitivity to off-black colors and grayscale. How many shades of black can you name, Dulse?

-Ninety-four.

-Yet you’ll never truly know what Pikachu looks like. I think it’s amazing how Megalo people happened to develop rich tritanopia as a result of living in the darkness for generations. You addressed the greenhouses by their English name, but they’re definitely not green to your eyes. Even when you spoke of the white-blue supergiant, you were actually quoting…

-Codey, calm yourself. I’m familiar with this being your favorite way to cope with anxiety attacks, but there is no reason for you to react so.

She sank in her seat and started nibbling her fingernails.

-Then what about the warning signs?

-They are compulsory since we are going to enter a restricted military area.

-Oh. And how are they supposed to let me in?

-It will be unguarded. No one ever goes to this place. There is nothing to see here for a civilian.

-So why are _we_ here?

He sighed.

-We are here because you are not a Megalo civilian, Codey. You are a human civilian who needs to learn.

 

The endless shiny wall – as Codey noticed once they were close enough – was actually a high-security fence, up to twelve feet tall, topped with razor wire. The road went through an automatic barrier gate, very similar to the ones that could be found on Earth, and continued beyond. No one was in sight. The trespassers didn’t have to slow down in front of the barrier: it lifted by itself, quite smoothly, as the car approached it.

 

They proceeded for a couple of miles more, leaving some empty barracks behind, whereupon the road ended in the most abrupt and unforeseen fashion – it merely stopped and died out in the dust – like a dry riverbed. Dulse hit the brakes and turned off the engine.

-Here we are. Welcome to the edge of the world.

Codey couldn’t see anything in spite of the intense, white-green street lights, which worked properly even in that remote corner of _Megalozem._ The steady glow from the very last lamp ultimately faded away past the furthermost portion of the road and that was where actual darkness began. The air itself appeared as thick and black as the depths of a pit filled with ink.

-Now,- he said, -I need you to get off the car and walk ahead of me. I promise you that nothing bad is going to happen.

-Dulse, this creeps me out. I’m scared.

-Please do as I say.

 

As soon as she had put her feet on the ground and slammed the car door behind her back, she was struck with how unbelievably quiet that place was. Not a sound was to be heard: no wind blowing, no sand rustling, no bird Pokémon chirping, just nothing, nothing.

-Please walk straight on,- said Dulse, who now stood motionless next to the vehicle, with arms folded across his chest. The barn red t-shirt he was wearing was from Earth and not just that – it was a gift from her. She remembered purchasing it for him one day, together with a short pleated orange skirt for Zossie.

-Come with me.

-I am with you already.

-Yeah but I mean, come along, I don’t want to go alone.

-It’s right there, Codey. Right in front of you. You only have to step forward and reach out for it.

She was nearly hyperventilating and couldn’t stand it anymore, so she did what he said while still stubbornly straining her eyes in the darkness.

Her heart fluttered as her fingers made contact with one more unexpected wall. It was invisible and warm this time and it had a jellylike consistency. She placed her entire hand against it, and the soft barrier gave way under its pressure. It seemed to be alive somehow, because it quivered and tingled her skin when she raised the other hand to touch more of it – caressing it – like an old blind woman looking for a door where there was none. At a closer look, to be sure, the unknown material could have been detected from a distance, since it did reflect some light, and Codey gasped for breath as she lifted up her eyes and saw it stretching above like a faint mirror to the last hint of light from the city center, soaring higher and higher, reaching stupendous altitudes where it eventually started to bend backwards in a such a manner that reminded her of the inner surface of a bubble.

It took some minutes for the fresh undergraduate to process the realization. She leaned to press her forehead on the transparent wall, shut her eyes and wept.

 

Dulse had been standing behind her for the whole time. He could hear her crying, but didn’t utter a word until she spoke first:

-How long have you been hiding this…?

-We never meant to hide it,- he said, -Everyone knows. It is commonly referred to as _Krug_ , “the Jar”.

-I must know why… I need to know why… I deserve to know why.

-Did you really think my people could ever stand a chance on a planet that had been deprived of its own sun? They were still to be considered half humans at that time – displaying basic human features like photoprotective pigmentation and inborn tendency to sin. You know the story: they turned against their own God, presuming that their audacious misuse of technology would match its might, but they were terribly wrong. The Blinding One showed no mercy. Our ancestors were forced to witness its wrath as the creature that had been bestowing its holy light upon them came to destroy their cities and devastate their land, bringing death to millions, setting fire to their corpses, turning entire continents to ashes. We, as a species, were nearly annihilated on that day. Our greed drove us to the brink of extinction.

-Dulse… Dulse, please…

-The fall of the Blinding One left us without any natural source of light nor heat, so – as soon as the fire was gone – the ice appeared. Survivors of the outrage gathered in those few areas that the punishment had spared and worked hard to rebuilt their houses while trying not to freeze to death. Although the catastrophe had disastrous consequences on our technological development, reverting us back to a primitive human-like state, the first _Krug_ was created in a matter of days and it was big enough to contain the Megalo Tower at the core of the early Megalopolis. As you already know, the Megalo Tower was equipped with a hidden chamber where the ones who fought back eventually succeeded in confining the wounded beast, whose body kept falling apart since then – afflicting it with unimaginable pain. The _Krug_ grew with the city, retaining the shape of a dome. Its base surface is nowadays more than one billion times bigger than it used to be soon after the Blinding One was caught. Enough with the overreacting now, Codey. Quit crying.

-Dulse, I… Oh Dulse, Dulse, I’m sorry…

-It was necessary for you to come this far to see the _Krug_ – I hope you understand now. You can’t pick one aspect of a culture you consider fascinating and just focus on that and push the rest aside. Either you are ready to take it on as a whole – world conflicts, disease outbreaks and mass shootings included – or just don’t bother.

She earnestly tried to stop sobbing, but her chest hurt as she continued to shout at herself in her mind – what a spoiled little child she was, what an overconfident fool, what a self-centered disrespectful scholar wannabe. Drawn to it by sheer curiosity at first, she approached Megalo language in the most presumptuous way – longing to be able to meet Dulse again in the near future and address him in his native tongue. Now Dulse was right there and went on about the _Krug_ and the Blinding One and the endless suffering his people had to go through and all she could do to share her grief with him was whining like a toddler.

-I am so sorry, Dulse… I just… I had no idea…

-Please. Do quit crying and pull yourself together.

-Dulse… Dulse…

She kept her forehead glued to the wall of the _Krug,_ in a cowardly attempt to escape Dulse’s glare – yet it stung the nape of her neck like a cluster of tiny silver needles.

 

-So are you all, like… locked inside?

-Not technically, but yes. Civilians cannot leave the _Krug._ There are four gates in total and they are permanently under direct military control. However, missions that require stepping outside the _Krug_ are rather common for us.

-What kinds of missions?

-Investigation and research. Scheduled maintenance of power plants and other facilities of key importance. Patrolling and protecting our borders.

She took a deep breath while finally regaining enough bravery to turn back and look at him in the eyes. He was still standing upright next to his car and seemed not to have moved at all.

-Dulse.

-Yes?

-What is it like… out there?

He looked away and remained quiet for several seconds before answering in a distant, yet painful voice.

-It’s darker and colder than the darkest, coldest place you would ever dare to think of. The land is perpetually encrusted with deep-frozen ice and surface temperatures average -180 degrees Celsius, which is too low for actual snow to fall, although dry ice snow fogs have been observed a few times…

-Dulse, I meant the landscape,- she whispered.

He hesitated again.

-I know,- he acknowledged soon after, almost reluctantly, -I know you meant that.

-So, what is it like?

-Oh, it used to be beautiful,- he whispered back to her, -There are pictures of it, stunningly old pictures that someone took before the fall of the Blinding One: they are available on several online databases so I will show you later if this is what you wish for. Nowadays, if you went out there with some powerful lighting, you would recognize mountains and solid lakes, hills and plains once covered with newly built cities… Yes, and a lighthouse.

-A lighthouse,- she repeated after him. Silent tears kept running down her cheeks.

-Probably the tallest building ever raised on _Megalozem._

-Dulse…

-It appears like a small, cold sun when switched on, and it gives off such a strong light that we can afford to stop relying on portable lamps. Of course, we only activate the beacon when a specific mission requires it. Standing by the watch room when the lanterns are on, adventuring outside, leaning on the railing and grabbing it tight to withstand the strongest winds you can imagine – I love to do this – as I let my eyes wander the surface of the planet way below, until I’m thoroughly overwhelmed with... Oh, forgive me. I don’t even know why I am telling you this.

-Dulse,- she sobbed softly and walked towards him.

-Yes?

-Please, go ahead. I want to listen.

-These awkward details are inconsequential, so forget about what you just heard. You shouldn’t be paying attention to such a meaningless bunch of…

-Actually, I would be glad to know more about you.

She was now right in front of him and Dulse stared at her with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

-Uh, about… me?

-Sure.

-I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to disclose any private information about myself.

Codey wiped off her tears with the back of her hand and smiled a bit.

-Fine.

-I hope you can forgive me.

-Never mind. I understand and it’s fine. I only have one favor left to ask.

-What is it?

-I challenge you to a Pokémon battle. Right here, now.


	3. Chapter 3

Dulse kept staring at her for a while, then gave a tiny bewildered smile and gently shook his head.

-Why is that, all of a sudden?

They stood opposite to each other, very close. Codey’s eyes lingered on his silver-white irises, rimmed in pale blue, with violet pupils instead of black. More tears gushed down her cheeks, yet she felt a rushing burst of eagerness at her own audacity and steadily returned his albinotic gaze with unflinching determination.

-Don’t you have your Pokémon with you?

-Yes, I do. Please answer my question though.

-It’s just… I can’t think of any better way to say thanks.

-I seem to recall your giving up on the island challenge, four years ago…

-I dropped it halfway, yes.

-Didn’t you fully quit Pokémon training back then?

-You know the whole story already: becoming a full-time Pokémon Trainer was never my dream, I was merely coaxed into trying because that’s what Alolan teenagers do. I was seventeen when we moved from Unova to Alola – much older than most trial-goers, but my parents encouraged me to partake in the challenge anyway and get to know the Alola region from personal experience. However, after I started running into you… Uh, I…

-What are you implying?

-Nothing. It was not your fault so stop looking at me like that. I don’t regret quitting. The island challenge was not for me.

-Still, you were not planning to give it up before you met us.

-I had the possibility to assist the Ultra Recon Squad in their activities and it helped me decide – once for all – that I would have rather become a researcher than the island challenge champion.

-And you kept your Pokémon with you.

-Yes, Dulse, because I love them! There’s more to Pokémon training than just proving people you’re the best. I kept my Pokémon with me, we had some nice friendly battles with other students during breaks at university. We don’t want to forget what we’ve learned.

-But why do you wish to battle me?- he asked, -Even without aiming high, you were good enough to never lose a single match we had. My team didn’t stand a chance against yours.

-Your “team” was, like, one Poipole alone…

-You just don’t want to answer, do you?

-Dulse, please. _Please._

-We should head home instead. It’s almost lunch time and you are supposed to check in to your dormitory, go grocery shopping, eat, get your Megalo phone number, meet with Zossie on your way back and collect your Student Card at the _Urad Wremdoj Suxtraj._

-No.

She was crying again and shaking all over. Her voice trembled as she went on in a low, snarling hiss:

-We are not going anywhere unless you let me battle you. I’m in pain, Dulse, and I can’t stand it – I can’t stand the urge to let you know how grateful I am for it. I want to take you on. I want this right now. I want you to crush me – or I will crush you, so come at me with everything you got. Show me your strength.

He finally nodded in glacial, silent agreement.

 

The fight didn’t go quite as planned – or this would have been the case if Codey herself had any preconceived idea of what to expect from such a battle. In truth, she knew very little about Dulse’s current Pokémon partners. She remembered his team being no match for hers whenever they happened to battle each other in Alola, so she ventured ahead, confident in her own skills, which she now deemed – by default – superior to his. Even so, though, she remained a mediocre Trainer.

Dulse, on the contrary, possessed a significant degree of natural talent he just had no clue how to make use of: the custom of Pokémon battling was new to Megalo people, so he and Zossie had to figure it all out by themselves. Talking to Codey and practicing with her surely contributed to their fascination with that peculiar aspect of Alolan culture, but participating in the island challenge would have been crucial for Dulse to truly prove his flair for training and put it to work. Anyway, he never came back for it.

The fresh undergraduate sent out Raichu first – somehow naively counting on Dulse to start off with Poipole, as per usual. Her opponent went with Vikavolt instead, and Codey needed a split second to realize that he, too, had been observing her, and correctly expected her to bring out her Electric/Psychic-type to face his poisonous little starter. Switching straight away was a wise option, but she decided not to let Dulse think she felt intimidated.

- _Psyshock!_

It hit immediately, because of its perfect accuracy and high speed of its user, but the Stag Beetle Pokémon didn’t seem to care much as it quickly regained balance mid-air, wings crackling with electricity. Dulse, who again stood still with arms crossed over his chest, spoke Megalo to it, and the creature’s grooved mandibles spat sparkles as it flew into Codey’s partner with an impressively loud buzzing noise that caused the girl to cover her hears and hiss in pain. Raichu would have suffered less damage from a blow to the head, Codey thought, as she watched her Pokémon fall to the ground, stunned to unconsciousness. She could do nothing but hold up its Pokéball to withdraw it from battle.

-Dulse, that… that was great,- she stuttered.

He said nothing – but when Vikavolt fluttered to him, wishing to be praised, he gladly rewarded it with a gentle stroke on the head. Codey stared over at them, placing Raichu’s ball back in her bag.

-Marowak, I choose you next!

Again, she counted on Dulse to recall his beast as soon as he heard her summon the Alolan conjurer, since its Fire/Ghost typing represented now a severe threat to Vikavolt; but, again, Dulse dumbfounded her by doing exactly the opposite of what she was hoping to achieve. Not only did he leave Vikavolt on the battlefield, but he also commanded it to attack.

-Marowak!- she shouted in confusion, desperate to score a knockdown, - _Flare blitz!_

Somehow, though, Vikavolt was faster. Its electric attack landed on Marowak before the Bone Keeper Pokémon could cloak itself in fire, making it lose momentum and dealing little damage. Dulse was well prepared: he withdrew Vikavolt in a flash of red light as the powerful critter dashed back to him in a short burst and immediately hurled another Pokéball onto the field.

-Haxorus.

That was Volt Switch, _Volt Switch,_ Codey went on and on in her own head, burning with feverish excitement, cheeks dripping wet with tears – he even knows how to use _Volt Switch!_ She struggled to stay focused, now bitterly aware of his newly refined skills as a Trainer. He was not going to let her win this time – not without fighting to the end.

And, yes – of course – _that_ Haxorus. The shiny one.

 

Codey’s Marowak finally sprang forward, ablaze with such an unmeasurable amount of raw power that would have consumed Vikavolt’s frail body by merely touching it – while the unfaltering, massive Dragon-type seemed to barely notice. Marowak, instead, groaned in pain upon clashing: forced into a headlong retreat, it jumped sideways and tried to run, but it was limping badly. Codey swallowed hard and sank her front teeth in her lower lip. Dulse, on the other hand, remained astonishingly calm.

- _Skalw zemaj._

-Dulse, no…!

The magnificent creature lifted its head, involuntarily showing off its polished dark carapace, heavy plated neck and scythe-like black tusks, both edged in crimson. Then it gave the loudest roar the girl had ever thought she could hear and started to stamp its three-toed feet on the ground – repeatedly. The rumbling vibrations it generated set the entire battlefield quaking in a matter of seconds.

-Dulse…!- Codey panicked and attempted not to lose her footing while still reaching out for her injured Pokémon, -Make it… Make it stop!

But it only stopped after Marowak collapsed and its unresponsive body was shrouded in a thin layer of settling dust.

 

Codey fell on her knees and sobbed.

-Oh Dulse… Dulse… Dulse…

-You said you wanted us to show you our strength,- he said, stepping forward and raising one hand for Haxorus to nuzzle it gently. Once more she couldn’t help but watching on, smiling through her tears.

-Yes… that’s what I said, and you, Dulse… you are amazing. I’m so proud, I’m so proud of you.

-See? There is one promise I kept.

Her smile grew wider.

-Not just that. You promised to be a good Trainer to that little token of mine,- she pointed at Haxorus, -But you’re so much more than just good, and definitely not just to him.

-She’s female.

-Oh, sorry.

The exhausted Marowak was back in its ball. Codey put it aside and picked another without the slightest of hesitations.

-Are you sure you wouldn’t like to take a break?- he asked, very politely.

-Dulse, do not treat me as if you had already won. We do not take breaks in the middle of a match. Espeon, go!

 

Dulse frowned and narrowed his pale white eyes at the Sun Pokémon, which appeared in a bright flash before landing quite gracefully on its dainty paws.

-Another Psychic-type…?

Codey knew that look – he was computing. After all, she now had something on her mind he had to figure out. Letting him take his time to do so would have been a major mistake.

-Espeon, quick! Use Dazzling Gleam!

- _Xib noktaj!_

Night Slash, she realized, gritting her teeth at his command. A Dark-type coverage move on a pure Dragon-type was certainly uncommon and she would have rather expected Haxorus to run Poison Jab or Iron Tail. However, it did make sense, considering that the overall unwelcoming environment of the Ultra Space Wilds correlated with a scarcity of Fairy-types, not a single report being available on Fairy-type Ultra Beasts. Dulse’s main task as a member of the Ultra Recon Squad consisted in investigating, safeguarding or destroying the Ultra Beasts themselves – so it was safe to assume, Codey thought, that he and his team didn’t have any actual field experience of Fairy-types.

Espeon hit first: a whole cloud of cascading light in the shape of densely swarming sparkles filled up the air above the contenders, forcing Dulse to shield his eyes while Haxorus was completely overwhelmed. Codey could not avert her gaze as the majestic dragon let out an excruciating scream of fear, staggered some steps backwards and eventually crashed to the ground, writhing in agony. There was her precious token to him.

-Haxorus,- said Dulse, without the slightest hint of an emotion, -Get up. _Dekelte se._

But the Axe Jaw Pokémon did not react: it was clearly unable to keep on fighting.

 

A small grin spread across Codey’s face. She mentally apologized to Dulse, feeling guilty at her own renewed enthusiasm as she stared at the defeated beast and grew confident at that sight – it wasn’t over yet. Her opponent lowered his head and remained silent, standing motionless with arms down by his side. When he raised his dragon’s Pokéball in front of him to recall it, he did so with a sluggish, weary gesture – appearing thoroughly lost in thoughts, recalculating. After that, he was nevertheless very prompt to toss a new ball. It was a Beast Ball this time:

- _Gexne,_ Naganadel.

 

The unearthly creature that burst out of the device caused both the girl and her Pokémon to back off, gasping at it with an open mouth. It measured up to ten feet if not more and possessed a purple striped insectoid body with large triangular wings resembling those of a wyvern. It had fuchsia tipped claws, an elongated neck, sharp mandibles and cyan eyes, which were conjoined in the middle and displayed a somewhat artificial steady glow. Codey was in sheer awe. She tripped over Espeon and almost fell, but couldn’t look away. Now she knew what the adult form of Poipole looked like.

-Espeon, use Psychic!

- _Swarto pulsar!_

The Ultra Beast surely relied on electromagnetism to keep itself aloft, showing no actual need to flap its wings while standing by – but it shot up like a bullet at Dulse’s command, dodging Espeon’s Psychic move, picking up speed with powerful wingbeats and finally disappearing in a dense, black gaseous substance that rapidly engulfed the battlefield. Codey acknowledged it as the typical side effect of a Dark Pulse attack, but it seemed like the very night sky – the eternally frozen _Megalonokt_ – had begun to melt, pouring plenty through some kind of crack in the transparent walls of the _Krug_. Espeon hissed again and again at the suffocating aura, thicker and heavier than air, before letting out a high-pitched cry of intense suffering.

-No, no, no…

Codey clenched her fists as she waited for the fog to start to dissipate and went in search of the Sun Pokémon. She found it soon – lying on the dusty ground, eyes wide with painful shock, stiff and unmoving. It almost looked dead.

Naganadel was now soaring in circles, waiting for its next prey to manifest itself. Dulse too was waiting.

 

-I… I must concede the fight.

-What was that?- he inquired from the other side of the battlefield, -I didn’t hear you. Would you please repeat what you just said?

-You won, Dulse. I have just one Pokémon left and you have two. Mine is a Decidueye, he has a Grass/Ghost typing and you know it well – you met him in battle several times, back in the days.

She pointed at Naganadel.

-That living weapon of yours would be much faster. It would hit first and I just saw it using Dark Pulse, a move that is supereffective on Decidueye. I will not send him out only to watch him get hurt for no reason.

Dulse nodded quietly. He tilted his head at the beast, which tucked both wings into its body and glided back to its Trainer.

-Codey, do you see this thing?

Codey double-checked the content of her bag to make sure all Pokéballs were safe inside and took a deep, wavering breath before moving towards him.

-I do.

Dulse reached out for Naganadel’s muzzle, firmly grabbed it by the jaws and pulled it close to his face so to press his own forehead between its eyes. A tiny moan escaped Codey’s lips at such a sight.

-There are two live specimens known to date. One belongs to the Captain of the Ultra Recon Squad, who is not a Trainer and keeps it for study purposes only. The other one is mine.

His lips brushed against the mouth of the beast as he spoke.

-They are vicious, aggressive and cruel. They spontaneously enjoy hurting and killing other creatures. For centuries, our government pursued a very strict policy in regards to the owning and domestication of Poipole and it resulted in evolution being selectively bred out of them. Nowadays it is possible to obtain Naganadel from Poipole only by following an extremely specific procedure – simply out of reach for a civilian.

-Could you please put it back in its ball? It’s making me uncomfortable.

-Thanks to our journey to the Alola region, I was able to form a strong, reliable bond with the Poipole I was entrusted with, and I had legal access to Naganadel as a member of the Ultra Recon Squad. Getting a Naganadel sounded challenging and potentially dangerous. I decided that I loved the idea.

-Dulse…

-Again, I have no clue why I’m telling you this – it is none of your business whatsoever.

-If that thing really is as vicious and cruel as you just described it, you should not be snuggling it like a damn Furfrou.

-Naganadel accompanied me on several missions without ever questioning any command. We respect each other.

The creature had been nuzzling into Dulse’s neck for some minutes and he lifted his chin to let it rub its nose against his throat. Codey struggled not to let out another moan as a barely perceptible blush crept up her cheeks.

-Dulse… Hear me out… Dulse…

-Hmm. Yes, I suppose you are quite right, after all. Let us go home.

**Author's Note:**

> The Megalo conlang is an ongoing experiment. It is a consistently structured artificial language with its own grammar and vocabulary. While playing UltraSun, I found it weird to find an entire alien race which could only speak English in game, and this is how I got the idea in the first place. I'm going to get a master degree next year and I will probably write my thesis about this work.  
> I have uploaded Megalo related content on a different website but I can provide links to some basic grammar charts if anyone is curious.


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